Ahmed Bile Excels at Georgetown

Ahmed Bile (100) finished third in the 800m at the 2013 indoor Big East championships.

It's a feeling known only by a select few. The 19-year-old gets it almost every race, whether lining up before a 5K or waiting for the baton pass in a relay. "Ahmed Bile, son of Olympian and world champion Abdi Bile," an announcer will say over the public address system.

He can sense the eyes on his slender, 6-foot-5 body. He can feel the doubt, wondering if he'll approach the greatness of his dad, who won the 1500m world title in 1987. Some say Abdi was Somalia's best-ever athlete.

Bile, now a freshman at Georgetown University, remembers it specifically as a high school junior at the 2010 Penn Relays in Philadelphia. He was about to run the third leg in the 4×4, when "the stadium got silent." A sign of respect. A this-guy-must-have-some-thing moment.

"I don't know anybody in the entire country who has more expectations on him than Ahmed, with a world champion father," says David O'Hara, Bile's former coach at Annandale (Va.) High School. "I think Ahmed holds himself to this insane standard."

Despite his father's running history, Bile didn't take up the sport until he was a sophomore in high school. In fact, the idea of running hadn't crossed his mind before his father suggested it might help him get in shape for soccer. "A lot of people think that because my dad was a world champion, he'd push me toward running," Bile says. "But he actually let me do whatever made me happy.

August of 2008 was the first time his son ever ran, Abdi says. The pair went up and down a hilly road near their home, about a mile and a half each way. Bile, completely worn out, wondered afterward whether joining the cross country team was a smart idea.

By January, things had changed. With the high school track frozen over, the team took to the streets to run repeat 400m and 800m sprints. "Ahmed was just out of nowhere blowing the doors off my 4:30 miler," O'Hara says. "I couldn't get over it. I was checking and rechecking the measurement of the distance."

Less than a year after starting competitive running, Bile placed second in Virginia's Northern Region for 1,000m. He ended his career as the 2012 outdoor national champion at 800m, a seven-time state champion and a five-time All-American. Bile finished high school with a PR of 1:49.85 in the 800m.

The dad senses some similarities between him and his talented son. "But at the same time, I see him as his own man," Abdi, 50, says. "He tries to run in the front a lot more than me. He's very smart."

Bile's late start in the sport, coupled with his lanky frame -- "He looked like a giant giraffe," O'Hara says -- forced the coaching staff to limit his volume. During high school he ran between 30 and 35 miles over six days each week, while his closest competitors often doubled that total.

It's one reason why Bile picked Georgetown, which values patience. Hoyas coach Patrick Henner explained early in the recruiting process that Bile would redshirt at least the fall semester of his freshman year. He needed to strengthen his core and lower legs to eventually run the same mileage as his teammates.

Bile's redshirt wasn't expected to come off until next year, though plans quickly changed after his first indoor race. Running the 1,000m at the Hoya Spiked Shoe Club Invitational in January, he had the top time (2:25:97) and a PR.

"You know what?" Henner said to Bile after the race. "You're ready to go."

That doesn't mean, however, that he'll be pushed the same way as others. Henner knows Bile's ceiling is so high, there's no choice but to be cautious.

"My coaches have instilled a lot of confidence in me," Bile says. "Sometimes you need that extra push to have yourself thinking, 'I can do it.' They've been telling me that I can stick with anybody in the country.

"At this point, I'm not as nervous as I was. Even though I'll occasionally get my butt kicked, I'm stepping onto the line, going for the win, every single time." It's an attitude that runs in the family.

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